The owner of several banquet halls in the area is looking at opening a new facility on the Schlumberger property.

John Royce, the owner of Candlewood Inn in Brookfield, confirmed Monday that he's in preliminary talks with the town about locating a facility on the property, which the city purchased in 2011 for $7 million.

Town officials have sold about five acres of the property to developer Stephen Zemo for $1.25 million. Zemo has said he plans to build a boutique hotel, a self-storage facility and a small mixed-use office and apartment complex.

While town officials said the hope was that Zemo could have included a banquet facility as part of the plan, it doesn't look like that will be feasible at this time.

"It appears the size of the facility we were looking at can't be accommodated to the footprint that would be required and the contours of that part of the property," First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Monday.

He added, however, that the town loses a lot of business because of the lack of a banquet facility that can handle at least 275 guests.

Such facilities, Royce said, help to support a variety of other businesses in town including hotels, restaurants, florists, photographers and limousine services.

Royce said he submitted a proposal with the town last week about purchasing a minimum of five acres for a facility. Currently, Royce operates the Candlewood Inn, The Riverview in Simsbury The Waterview in Monroe and The Fox Hill Inn in Brookfield.

"We believe that Ridgefield would be a great location," Royce said. "The choices for high quality facilities on that side of Connecticut are very limited."

Marconi noted that while the town is in negotiations for more than two years with a private art collector who is also interested in the property, they are always interested in looking at other proposals.